Past News & Events

February: Drs. Aimee Eggler (Department of Chemistry and Program in Biochemistry) and Konstantinos Agrios (Department of Chemistry) attended the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Washington, DC. Undergraduate students Alexandra Elder, Linda Nguyen, and Lela Mortezavi presented posters of their work. Well done!

February: Undergraduate students Hannah Curran and Jorna Sojati from the Giuliano (Department of Chemistry) and Palenchar(Department of Chemistry and Program in Biochemistry) labs, respectively, in the Department of Chemistry presented posters at the Philadelphia section American Chemical Society’s Younger Chemists Committee 16th Annual Poster Session in Philadelphia at the University of the Sciences. Biochemistry undergraduate Jorna Sojati’s poster took first place in the undergraduate category. Good job!

April: Congratulations to the Biochemistry majors honored at the recent Silvestri Day celebration!

April: Members of the Kraut, Selinsky, and Youngman labs presented their work at the national 2016 Experimental Biology Meeting San Diego. Students who presented their work included Eden Reichard, Giavonna Cherico, Stephanie Neumann, and Caytlin Nichols. Well done!

May: Congratulations to Dr. Eydiejo Kurchan and colleagues who were recently awarded a University award for their work in the Life Safety Box project! Read more about the work below. In addition to her roles as staff chemist and safety officer in the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Kurchan helps to coordinate the Biochemistry labs and is a Biochemistry lab instructor. Well done!

June: Well done Bamezai Lab! Their work investigating B cell development has been published in PloS One. Congrats!

August 2016: The American Chemical Society's national meeting was just down the road in Philadelphia! Drs. Jen Palenchar, Peter Palenchar, and Barry Selinsky, along with students, presented work at this meeting.

August 2016: It’s the ‘Nova Biochemistry triple threat! Drs. Jim Wilson, Dennis Wykoff and Matt Youngman together published their work on the Salmonella iprA gene. Kudos to recent Biochemistry alumna Alexandra Kinnally for her contribution to the work! Read more about it!

August 2016: The Wykoff lab, along with Dr. Amanda Grannasof Chemistry, have published work on the thiamine signal transduction pathway in yeast. Awesome job!

August 2016: Kudos to the Kraut lab! Their work on the proteasome has been published. Undergraduate Biochemistry students Gia Chirico, William Dewey, and Katelyn Bard all contributed to the work. Well done!

We proudly announce the newly established Biochemistry Distinguished Lecture Series funded through a kind donation to the program. We are honored that Dr. Gisela Storz of the NIH is our inaugural speaker. Her talk is entitled, “The genes that were missed: intricate regulation provided by small RNAs and small proteins.”

November 2015: Dr. Aimee Eggler and Ms. Anna Briker (Biochemistry, 2017) traveled to Boston to attend the 2015 Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (SFRBM) and present their work. Well done!

October 2015 We are always proud of our Biochemistry graduates! The outcomes of our 2015 Biochemistry graduates have been compiled. Every 2015 graduate is employed, in a graduate program, in the military (following ROTC at Villanova), in medical school, or in law school. See the details here!

August 2015Dr. Elaine Youngman and co-investigators Drs.Dennis Wykoff, James Wilson, and Todd Jackman are the recipients of a National Science Foundation MRI (Major Research Instrumentation) Program grant. Read more about the funded proposal, Acquisition of an Illumina MiSeq for Education and Research, here. Congratulations!

August 2015 The Wykoff lab has published their work, “A paralog of the phosphomutase-like gene family in Candida glabrata, CgPmu2, gained broad-range phosphatase activity due to a small number of clustered substitutions” in the Biochemical Journal. Read more about it here. Well done!

July 2015 Congrats to Dr. Aimee Eggler and her lab on their publication in Toxicology Letters, "Comparison of human Nrf2 antibodies: A tale of two proteins." with student authors Zach Kemmerer (Masters, Chemistry, 2014), Nicholas Ader (BS, Biochemistry and Biology, 2015), and Sarah Mulroy (BS, Biochemistry 2014). Well done!

July 2015: Kudos to our recently graduated seniors! As part of our ASBMB-accredited program, seniors can have their degrees certified through an ASBMB exam. Our graduating class of 2015 performed above the national average for both earning certified degrees and earning certification with distinction. Excellent work, Class of 2015!

July 2015: Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Kraut, the recipent of an NSF RUI grant! The project, entitled the "Effect of Substrate Polyubiquitination on Proteasomal Unfolding Ability," will be funded for the next three years in the amount of $411,380. Congratulations on this wonderful acheivement!

May 2015: Several Biochemistry Program faculty are the recipients of internal Villanova awards. Dr. Aimee Eggler has recieved a Faculty Development grant, Dr. Jennifer Palenchar a Research Support grant, and Dr. Peter Palenchar, with Dr. Deanna Zubris, Chemistry, a VITAL fellowship. Congrats!

April 2015: The Biochemists have been on the road to national meetings this spring! Dr. Daniel Kraut and Ms. Hyewon Kim (Biochemistry, 2015, pictured at right) presented their work at the national meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Boston. Meanwhile, the Selinsky lab was represented at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver!

March 2015 Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Kraut who has been awarded a Cottrell College Science Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement! The focus of the funded work is, "Do Proteasomal Motor Proteins Have Separable Functions? The Effect of Aromatic Paddle Mutations on Proteasomal Processivity." Read more about the award. Congratulations!

December 2014 Congratulations to senior Nick Ader(Biochemistry/Biology, 2015) who has been awarded a Marshall Scholarship! He is the second ever Villanovan to be awarded this prestigious scholarship (and the second Villanova Biochemistry major in as many years to be awarded a Marshall Scholarship!). Read moreabout Nick and the Marshall Scholarship. Update March 2015: Nick has also been accepted into the NIH Marshall Program, which provides two years of additional funding towards his doctoral work. Congrats!

November 2014Dr. Aimee Eggler and Nick Ader (Biochemistry/Biology 2015) traveled to the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine Annual Meeting in Seattle to present their work, “Comparison of Human Nrf2 Antibodies: All Is Not as It Seems.” Excellent!

November 2014 Our student Biochemistry club, Villanova Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is now an official chapter of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Undergraduate Affiliate Network (UAN). Way to go!

October 2014 Congratuations to Dr. Matt Youngman who has been awarded a 2014 Kaufman Foundation Investigator Award for his proposal, Analysis of the role of SMK-1 in the age-dependent regulation of the FOXO transcription factory DAF-16 in Caenorhabditis elegans.” Across Pennsylvania, only 5 of these awards were made. Congratulations on this tremendous achievement!

April 2014: Several members of our student Biochemistry club, Villanova Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, volunteered at PAGES. They led 6th grade girls in an enzyme experiment. Check out the pictures here!

April 2014: Congratulations to Ms. Jessica Eby (Biochemistry/French, 2014) who has been awarded a 2014-2015 Fulbright US Student Grant. Well done, Jess!

March 2014: Mr. Nicholas Ader (Biochemistry/Biology, 2015) has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship! Congratulations on this tremendous honor!

February 2014: Congratulations to Dr. Aimee Eggler, the recipient of a Cottrell College Science Awardfrom the Research Corporation for Science Advancement! The focus of the work is the "Activation of the Nrf2 pathway by oxidizable diphenol compounds: Elucidating the contributions of the electrophilic form and reactive oxygen species."

December 2013: Our Biochemistry program has earned accreditation through the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)!

December 2013: Senior Biochemistry major Joana Petrescu has been named Villanova’s first ever Marshall Scholarship winner. Congratulations on this tremendous honor! Joana will use this award to study cancer biology at Cambridge University. Read more about Joana and the Marshall Scholarship!

November 2013: Dr. Daniel Kraut has published an article entitled, “Slippery Substrates Impair ATP-dependent Protease Function by Slowing Unfolding” in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Check it out! Congratulations!

November 2013: The Wilson lab has published an article entitled, “Engineering large functional plasmids for biosafety” in Plasmid. Congratulations!

August 2013: Dr. Aimee Eggler delivered the PSNA/Elsevier Award Lecture at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America. Well done! At the same meeting, graduate student Zachary Kemmerer presented his work entitled, “Synergistic Nrf2/Antioxidant Response Element Pathway Activation by Sulforaphane and Zerumbone through Addition of Redox Catalyst.”

July 2013: Congratulations to the Wykoff lab on their publication in PLos One entitled, “The fate of linear DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida glabrata: the role of homologous and non-homologous end joining.” Kudos!

· Graduating senior Katharine Dynarski is the recipient of the Villanova Mendel Medallion in Biochemistry – The Rosalind Franklin Award.

Congratulations to all on these well-deserved honors!

May 2013: Congratulations to our seniors! This year, 21 students graduated in Biochemistry. Of these, one graduated summa cum laude, two graduated magna cum laude, and four graduated cum laude. We wish you all the best in your new endeavors!

May 2013: Kudos to biochemistry students Sarah Mulroy (Eggler lab) and Daniel Amor (Desmond lab)! Both received Villanova Undergraduate Research Fellow (VURF) awards to carry out summer research here at Villanova. Well done!

April 2013:The Villanova Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (VSBMB) is now official! Stay tuned for the happenings of our student biochemistry club.

April 2013: Members of Dr. Angela DiBenedetto’s laboratory presented their work at the regional meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA:

September 2012: Congratulations to the Wykoff lab on their newest publication in press! Kerwin C.L. & Wykoff DD. 2012 De novo generation of a phosphate regulated promoter in Candida glabrata. FEMS Yeast Research.

August 2012:Dr. Matthew Youngman joins us as a new Assistant Professor of Biology and member of the Biochemistry Program! Dr. Youngman completed his undergraduate work in Biochemistry at Pepperdine University, received a PhD in Cell Biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and carried out postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At Villanova, Dr. Youngman will carry out research to understand the molecular basis for the age-dependent decline in immunity known as "immunosenescence". Using the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model host, the Youngman Lab will seek to define the mechanisms by which genes that are important for the immune response are regulated during aging and to understand how changes in cellular function that occur later in life impact the ability of an organism to resist infection. Welcome Dr. Youngman!

August 2012: Many congratulations are in order!Dr. Barry Selinsky has accepted the position of Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development in the College of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Dennis Wykoff has been named the Dennis M. Cook Endowed Gregor Mendel Chair in Genetics. Congratulations to both on these well-deserved honors!

August 2012: Dr. Aimee Eggler is the inaugural recipient of the Phytochemistry/Phytochemical Society of North America Young Investigator Research Grant Award! The award is the first of its kind sponsored by the Elsevier journal Phytochemistry. Congratulations on this honor!

August 2012: Our biochemists were well represented at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia! Posters were presented on “Antimicrobial and lytic activities of squalamine analogs: Effect of stereochemistry at C3 and C7” (T-D Tessema and B.S. Selinsky), “Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of a series of (3β-N-1,3-diaminopropyl) bile acids” (F.G. Gassler and B.S. Selinsky), “PCR and statistical analyses of the observed variations in the CCR5 gene” (F. Raposo, J. Palenchar, B.S. Selinsky, and J. Rucker), “Analysis of amino acid conservation using the functional amino acid navigator” (P. Palenchar), “Unusual cofactor preference of Trypanosoma brucei β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase” (S. Uppal and J. Palenchar), and “Characterization of an essential trypanosome DNA binding protein” (C. Sofaand J. Palenchar)

August 2012: Dr. Jennifer Palenchar has been named the co-director of the Biochemistry program from the Chemistry Department. She joins Dr. Janice Knepper, the co-director from the Biology Department.

August 2012: We sadly inform you of the passing of Dr. Robert Reczkowski. Bob is missed and his many years of teaching and research in the Chemistry Department are greatly appreciated.August 2012 – We welcome Dr. Aimee Eggler to Villanova as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, teaching in the Biochemistry Program. Dr. Eggler received her BS in Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Eggler’s research involves the molecular mechanism of regulation of transcription factors. We welcome Dr. Eggler to Villanova!

March 2012: Dr. Anil Bamezai was invited to speak at the International Conference and Exhibition on Nanotechnology & Nanomedicine, March 12-14, 2012, at Omaha, Nebraska. Title of his talk was: “Nano-structures on plasma membrane of immune cells: isolation and characterization”. Congratulations on this honor!

June 2012 – Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Palenchar and Dr. Dennis Wykoff, who were both granted tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor effective in August 2012.

May 20, 2012 – At graduation ceremonies, the second class of four year biochemistry majors were awarded their BS degrees. Congratulations to Jillian Kazley (who finished in December 2011), Taseer Bhatti, Jazzmin Boyd, Sage DeRosa, Andrew Feiter, Brooks Hopkins, Daniel Mason, Irene Michailides, Jennifer Mottern, Sayani Patra, Elizabeth Tang, and Jephne Wang. Thanks for making the last four years special for us all!

May 2012 – Biochemistry faculty members Dr. Peter Palenchar and Dr. Jennifer Palenchar published an article in Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology entitled “The Evolution of Metabolic Enzymes in Plasmodium and Trypanosomatids As Compared to Saccharomyces and Schizosaccharomyces”. (Volume 184, pp. 13-19, 2012)

April 22, 2012 – Dr. Dennis Wykoff presented an invited talk at the National Meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in San Diego, CA. Dr. Wykoff’s talk was, “Effective teaching and mentoring while publishing and (hopefully) having a life”.

April 2, 2012 – Biochemistry undergraduate student Jephne Wang, along with Biology graduate students Eric Shrestha and Justin Saunders and Biochemistry faculty member Dr. Janice Knepper, presented a poster at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. The title of their poster was “Fliz-1 regulation of GATA-3 expression in mammary tumor cells”.

January 2012 – Congratulations to Tina Shah, who was given a Best Poster award at the American Chemical Society (Philadelphia section) Undergraduate and Graduate Poster Session at Temple University. Biochemistry undergraduate student Russell Miller and faculty member Dr. Jennifer Palenchar also attended the poster session.

January 2012 – Welcome to Dr. Daniel Kraut, a new Assistant Professor of Chemistry who will be teaching in the Biochemistry Program. Dr. Kraut received his BS from Swarthmore College, his PhD from Stanford University and has just completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemistry at Northwestern University. Dr. Kraut’s research examines the proteosome, a cellular complex involved in protein breakdown and recycling.

April 2011 - Undergraduate biochemistry students Paulina Ogorzalek (Biochemistry ‘11) and Russell Miller (Biochemistry ‘13), along with faculty member Jennifer Palenchar, presented a poster entitled “Characterization of a putative Trypanosoma brucei transcription factor” at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Washington, DC, in April 2011. Paulina has entered the Masters program in Food Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

April 2011 - Undergraduate biochemistry students Kasey Johnson (Biochemistry ‘11) and Victoria Pisciella (Biochemistry ‘11), along with faculty member Barry Selinsky, presented a poster entitled “Expression, Purification, and Characterization of a Putative Acetylcholine Binding Protein from Nostoc punctiforme” at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Washington, DC, in April 2011. Kasey has entered the PhD program in neurobiology at the University of Connecticut Medical School, while Victoria is employed at PPD, Inc., as a project assistant in biostatistics.

April 2011 - Undergraduate biochemistry students Huasong Tang (Biochemistry ’11) and Kevin Backus (Biochemistry ’11), along with faculty member Barry Selinsky, presented a poster entitled “Expression, Purification, and Characterization of a Putative Cyclooxygenase from Nostoc punctiforme” at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Washington, DC, in April 2011. Huasong has been accepted into the Commonwealth Medical School in Scranton, PA, and Kevin is.

February 2011 – Dr. Dennis Wykoff published a journal article in the February issue of Eukaryotic Cell entitled “Systematic screen of Schizosaccharomyces pombe deletion collection uncovers parallel evolution of the phosphate signal transduction pathway in yeasts.” Theresa Henry (Biology ’10) is the first author along with two other undergraduate authors - Juliette Power (Biochemistry ’10) and Aishat Mohammed (Biology ’08). All three students performed a senior thesis and were supported during a summer by the Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships. This work identified a new signal transduction pathway in fission yeast and suggests that certain parts of the phosphate signal transduction pathway are highly conserved in eukaryotes.

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Villanova University was founded in 1842 by the Order of St. Augustine. To this day, Villanova’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition is the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University’s six colleges.